In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois suggested that the question white people so often want to ask black people is, How does it feel to be a problem? This program turns the tables and recognizes some simple facts: Race problems have their roots in a system of white supremacy. White people invented white supremacy. Therefore, the color of the race problem is white. White people are the problem. White people have to ask ourselves: How does it feel […]

Speaker Leo R. Chavez is a Professor of anthropology at University of California, Irvine and Director of the Center for Research on Latinos in a Global Society. Perceptions about race shape everyday experiences, public policies, opportunities for individual achievement, and relations across racial and ethnic lines.

Do we really know when we are engaging in racist behaviors? Many people assume they understand racism and know how to recognize and avoid racist behaviors. However, modern-day racism is more subtle and unconscious than we often understand–and we good and well-intentioned individuals are often engaging in these subtle but harmful behaviors of which we are completely unaware. Such behaviors can negatively affect our friendships, our work relationships and our work with future mental health clientele, students, business clients, or […]

From Facing Race 2010’s closing plenary, held on Saturday September 25, “Popularizing Racial Justice: Building Clarity, Unity and Strategy to Move us Forward.” Amidst a climate of racist populism, how do we popularize racial justice? How can we jumpstart the real race conversation and transformation needed? What are we learning and what do we still need to figure out? What analytical and strategic connections can move us forward together? Key leaders weigh in on the discourse and direction we need. […]

“Racism: A History” is a three-part British documentary series originally broadcast on BBC Four in March 2007. It was part of the season of programs broadcast on the BBC marking the 200th anniversary of the Slave Trade Act 1807, a landmark piece of legislation which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. The series explores the impact of racism on a global scale and chronicles the shifts in the perception of race and the history of racism in Europe, […]

In the aftermath of the Newtown shooting, David Sirota appeared on CNN to discuss the racial double standard evident in the way America reacts to crimes committed by white men. When white guys commit violent crimes, their transgressions are individualized. But when people of color commit violent crimes, their transgressions are unduly projected onto whole demographic groups. This double standard, he argued, is an expression of white privilege.

Barbara Trepagnier discusses her new book “Silent Racism.” About the book: “Vivid and engaging, Silent Racism persuasively demonstrates that silent racism—racism by people who by all accounts would be classified as “not racist”—is instrumental in the production of institutional racism. Trepagnier argues that heightened race awareness is more important in changing racial inequality than judging whether individuals are racist. The collective voices and confessions of “nonracist” white women heard in this book help reveal that all individuals harbor some racist […]

“Muhammad’s book renders an incalculable service to civil rights scholarship by disrupting one of the nation’s most insidious, convenient, and resilient explanatory loops: whites commit crimes, but black males are criminals. With uncommon interpretive clarity and resourceful accumulation of data, the author disentangles crime as a fact of the urban experience from crime as a theory of race in American history. This is a mandatory read.” — David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize–winning author

Growing up in privilege is not without its drawbacks. Being of European descent often means having to confront a past that is riddled with abuses of those who ‘got in the way’. There are several options open to a white person. The most popular is deliberate ignorance of the past coupled with a utopian belief that we live in a post racial world. The other option seems to be all too depressing: unremitting guilt. This session provides a third way […]

Upcoming Workshops

TBA

White Privilege:

1. a. A right, advantage, or immunity granted to or enjoyed by white persons beyond the common advantage of all others; an exemption in many particular cases from certain burdens or liabilities.
b. A special advantage or benefit of white persons; with reference to divine dispensations, natural advantages, gifts of fortune, genetic endowments, social relations, etc.